Properties of SiC Ceramics Sintered via Liquid Phase Using Al2O3 + Y2O3, Al2O3 + Yb2O3 and Al2O3 + Dy2O3 as Additives: a Comparative Study

Silicon carbide (SiC) ceramics show excellent performance at high temperatures. Due to the high covalence of Si-C bonds, these ceramics are produced successfully only via liquid phase sintering (LPS). In this work, SiC ceramics were sintered via LPS using eutectic mixtures of Al2O3+Y2O3, which served as a standard for comparison, Al2O3+Yb2O3 and Al2O3+Dy2O3. The oxides mixtures were used to form liquid phase during the SiC sintering. Mixtures of SiC and additives were ground, pressed at 300 MPa and sintered at 1950ºC for 2 hours. All mixtures showed similar hardness, fracture toughness and fl...